


Chase the Shadows Away

by shihadchick



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 5 Things, Curse-Breaking, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-19 01:42:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22169863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shihadchick/pseuds/shihadchick
Summary: The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and Josh feels like he's been falling all season.[Or: five times Josh Anderson tried to break his curse and one time he managed to stop worrying about it]
Relationships: Josh Anderson/Pierre-Luc Dubois
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67





	Chase the Shadows Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [void_fish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/void_fish/gifts).



> Happy (rather belated) birthday, Jay, you are one of my favourite people, please have some porn to celebrate your natal day <3
> 
> Many thanks to [rhubarbpie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhubarbpie/pseuds/rhubarbpie) for the speedy and helpful beta! We're hand-waving some living arrangements Because I Can; otherwise it's loosely set around the time before Josh got hurt (oh buddy :( ). The title is, of course, from ABBA.

* * *

1\. 

"—and then Zach yelled at me and asked if I even have a cleaning service any more after he moved out and I think he threatened to call my mom and, like, you know Zach and moms."

Luc nodded like he knew what Josh was talking about, even though Zach had been on his _best behaviour_ since that whole thing where he’d almost kind of hit on Seth's mom at Thanksgiving, which everyone had heard about but thankfully only Boone and Ryan and Josh had actually witnessed. Josh had never worried that he was going to have to stop his top pairing defensemen from fighting each other, and thank god Seth had mostly thought it was funny, after a second, but Josh was still writhing in remembered embarrassment any time it got brought up, which was of course every other day, because hockey players didn't know when to let a story or joke die.

Which was sort of the other reason he hadn't wanted to explain what was actually going on to anyone, because then he'd never stop hearing about it. 

He found he didn't mind telling Luc, though.

"And I know it's dumb, but, like I was talking to Jody—"

Luc screwed up his face and made a "wait what?" noise at him, and okay, so Josh wasn't exactly being clear about the connection there probably.

Josh sighed. "I just—I can't score and I feel like I'm fucking cursed."

"So you talked to Jody." 

Luc nodded as he spoke, like he totally got that, because Luc was a solid dude and on Josh's level, or at least around eye level, which was mostly the same thing.

"Yeah, and he was like, 'back when I was playing one of the guys swore by throwing salt over his shoulder' so I was like, it can't hurt, right?"

"I think," Luc said, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, a laugh in his voice, "that you're meant to do that, like, not into Zach's face."

"He shouldn't have been walking into the kitchen unexpectedly then," Josh protested, but he had to admit Luc was probably right. And at least Zach had been the one who'd got the dustbuster out and cleaned up, although Josh was a little shaky on the consequences of that in terms of curse-breaking ability.

"So, did it work?" Luc asked a moment later, leaning around Josh to grab a bottle of water out of the fridge.

Josh sighed. "Did I score yet? So no."

Luc hummed. "Give it time."

2\. 

"What were you even trying to cook?" Boone asked, coughing and waving his hand in front of his face to try and clear some of the haze away. 

Ryan leaned against the doorframe, looking equal parts concerned and amused, and not getting any closer to the source of all the mayhem. Josh couldn't blame him, honestly. Especially if the whole curse thing was contagious. Like, who wanted to even have to deal with that? Ryan had enough of his own problems, and even only thinking that Josh had to reach over to rap his knuckles on the wooden table just in case. Every little bit helped, right?

Except what he'd been trying clearly hadn't helped at all, unless all he needed to break the curse was to have nosey and well-meaning teammates let themselves into his apartment when they could hear the smoke alarm going off, despite Josh waving a dish towel frantically underneath it.

"Would you believe I was making dinner?"

Boone looked at the pile of half-burned ashes on top of the stove, the paper wafting gently and smokily with, annoyingly, just enough text left visible to see the NHL.com logo at the top and the columns full of numbers underneath. You probably didn’t have to be a genius to work out that it was stats of some kind.

"No," Boone said dryly.

"Did you not think it might work better on the balcony?" Ryan suggested. "In, you know, the fire pit that you bought last summer?"

"I'm _cursed_ ," Josh argued. "It makes me forget things!"

"Uh-huh," Ryan said, even more dryly than Boone, and that was just unfair, they were ganging up on him. Josh was going to have to get Luc or Zach or someone else there to back him up; even if they'd laugh at him on the inside they'd at least pretend like he wasn't a fucking dumbass when he was freaking out. But in his defense: one goal in twenty games. _One_.

"Be fair," Ryan chided, grinning at Boone, and Josh just knew whatever he was going to say next wasn't going to be fair at all. "Maybe Andy just wanted to meet some hot firefighters."

Josh gave it maybe two minutes before one of them came up with a very unfunny pun about tinder and decided he'd been shamed enough for one day, thank you very much.

"Get the fuck out," he said. "If you're not going to help clean up, go home and, and—do whatever, I don't know. I knew I should've given Seth my spare key."

"He lives in a whole different building," Ryan pointed out, "If it was snowing and you locked yourself out taking trash down to the chute in your boxers again you couldn't actually go get the key off him. At least, not without freezing your dick off."

Josh narrowed his eyes. Just because Ryan was, technically speaking, correct, didn't mean it was right. And anyway—

"You know, don't think I didn't notice that I wasn't the only one in that scenario wearing practically nothing."

Josh had been sitting on that one for a while and saving it for whenever he really needed to get one back on Boone or Ryan, because he'd bet at least half his contract that they both thought he hadn't noticed.

"It was 2am!" Boone protested.

"Why were you even taking trash out at 2am?" Ryan asked, and Josh nearly fell for the misdirect.

"Why were you wearing _Ryan's sweatpants_ at 2am?" Josh replied, triumphantly, waiting for Boone to crumble in the face of his superior, Sherlock-like observation skills.

"We do laundry together all the time," Boone said, annoyingly unflapped. "I guess they wound up in my drawers, why?"

Josh deflated. He'd been so sure—

And now not only did he not have quality ammo to chirp them with, he looked like kind of an asshole for trying it.

"No reason," Josh said. "Anyway, I was kicking you out, the fire is also out, we're all fine here, please leave."

"So long as it's fine," Ryan said, and then he reached over to clap Josh on the shoulder with a sympathetic look that was all too understanding, and made Josh want to crumple up inside into a small, embarrassed ball that he could throw himself into the vaguely scorched pan he was never going to be able to cook bacon in again. "I know it sucks, just—don't drive yourself crazy about it, okay? Bad luck runs out eventually."

"Thanks," Josh said, sitting back down at his table and slumping, head in his hands. He'd been so sure this would do the trick; destroying the manifestation of his bad luck would have to get the monkey off his back, right? And Shawsy had sworn it worked for him back in the day, although come to think about it, Josh wasn't real sure where you used to get stats before the internet, like, existed.

"Oh hey, and Josh?" Boone said, sticking his head back around the door frame, giving him that big shit-eating grin that made Josh feel better about life even when he kind of wanted to sock Boone one for being so annoying. "Definitely don't walk into our place without knocking unless you want an eyeful."

Josh sat up straighter. Wait a minute—

"Yeah, your timing sucks," Ryan yelled, from Josh's front door he was pretty sure, and just before it clicked closed behind them, Josh could hear Boone reply—as he was probably supposed to, and seriously, fuck his life—"Nah babe, that's all you."

"Seriously," Josh said, letting his head bang on the table, and at least the wood was cool against his suddenly-overheated face, as he tried and failed not to picture all of that. "Fuck my life."

* * *

3\. 

"I don't know why you're calling me," Saader said, mumbling into the phone so that Josh had to crane to hear him, and in a weird way it was just like having him in the locker room again, his soft little voice telling Josh what he needed to hear even when he didn't want to hear it. "I can't fuckin score either, Andy."

"You've been around, though," Josh argued. "It's like, not the first time it's happened to you!"

"Oops, sorry, I didn't know you were in the middle of something," Luc said, and backed up hurriedly, giving Josh a little wave as he let the door close behind him again. Josh stared for a second; those jeans looked really great, he definitely had to ask Luc where he'd gotten them from.

"I said," Saader said in his ear, and Josh tried to yank his attention back appropriately. "I don't really—I don't know, just do those visualisation things and keep going hard to the net, it'll come. Who was that, anyway?"

"Just one of the boys," Josh said, and flopped down on his couch, staring at the smudge of dirt on the toe of his shoes. Maybe he needed new kicks. Lucky shoes were a thing, right? "Hey, Saader, I gotta go, I'm gonna get Wenny to take me shopping."

"My condolences to your bank balance," Saader said, very solemnly, but then he laughed and added, "Seriously, Josh, you'll be fine. Catch you later."

"Yeah, bye," Josh said, and then hung up, starting to compose a text to Wenny right away. New sneakers were definitely what he needed to get his luck juiced up again.

* * *

4.

"I'm just saying," Sonny said doggedly, "You could do worse."

"Stop encouraging him to smoke up, you know he's bad at it," Harry said, and wow, Josh just got no respect.

"I wasn't!" Sonny said indignantly. "I was just saying, you know, it works for Sid—"

"Oh my god," Bjorky interrupted, looking horrified. "No. Do not start that."

"I wasn't saying he needed a lucky jock—" Sonny said, and "That's not even the least of it" Nasher said darkly, and Josh kind of wanted to know but also didn't, and besides, even if it worked for Crosby that was just—

No, there had to be a better way to break whatever curse he had going on.

"Hey Sonny," Josh said, remembering something he'd seen on TV once. "Do you guys have any sage in your apartment?"

* * *

"Seriously," Boone said, and Josh was trying so, so hard not to notice that his shirt was only three-quarters buttoned up and not in all the right holes. "Please stop trying to burn things indoors."

"At least his smoke alarm works," Ryan said, and Josh wasn't actually sure that was a positive if it meant that his teammates were busting into his apartment _again_ , even if they did yell a lot less than their building manager had done the one time it'd been her. Josh was only a little scared of her, okay?

"It's meant to be smokey!" Josh protested.

"It's not fuckin' barbecue, Andy," Seth said, with a barely discernible eyeroll, and Josh wasn't even going to _ask_ why Jonesy was visiting Boone and Ryan's apartment at midnight, that was none of his business, nope.

"I think you've smudged enough of it, anyway," Ryan said. "So, like, leave a window open and go to bed already, Josh."

Ryan gave the other two a significant look that Josh was honestly surprised didn't set the smoke alarm off again all by itself. "I'm going to, anyway. Later, man."

"Yep, gotta go," Seth said, and "We gotta get those good zees before the game tomorrow, eh?" Boone added, and Josh was just so, so glad that he didn't share a wall with them even if they were all on the same floor.

Fuck his life, seriously. He couldn't even buy a goal or remember the last time he'd gotten laid, and there was Seth, neck and neck with Z, setting new franchise scoring records and apparently banging Jenns and/or Murr as well. 

It was just not goddamn fair.

* * *

5\. 

"I really don't think this is a good idea," Luc said, looking dubiously at Josh, and stirring the pot on the grill—outside, even though it was snowing, because no one could say Josh didn't learn a lesson when he had to.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Josh asked, squinting at the mixture in the pot. 

It didn't really look like it was roiling. But then again, he wasn't sure what that looked like, so maybe—

He pulled his phone out again and went to see if anyone had posted a How To online. Curse-breaking had to be, like, as old as time, right? Sleeping Beauty and the Little Mermaid and, like, Frozen and whatever had to have been inspired by something. Someone had to have a YouTube channel about it.

"We pass out from the smell, we get frostbite, we set the building on fire and Jarmo has to send us up to Cleveland in shame…?" Luc suggested, and looked like he could probably go on for a while. 

Josh winced. It wasn't like he was wrong.

"I think it has to be a lot colder before we really have to worry about frostbite," Josh said, although he was now starting to think maybe they should've stopped to get gloves first. And maybe their coats. He hadn't expected this to take so long. But the herbs that the old woman at the store had assured him were right had just sat limply in the pot and hadn't wilted or changed color, and Josh was starting to think that he'd just been ripped off.

"Oh, wait, it's doing something," Luc said, and he leaned over the pot to look more closely.

Unfortunately, Josh did the exact same thing at the exact same time from the other side of the grill, and the two of them knocked heads in a way that made Josh see stars for a moment, sparkling around the edges of his vision.

A bubble in the pot popped, and smelled like… cilantro.

"Ow," Josh said, and "False alarm," Luc said, rubbing his head. "You wanna go inside and get a beer before we give ourselves concussions or whatever?"

"Yeah," Josh said, and followed him gratefully back inside.

* * *

"Good luck charms?"

"Used 'em all."

"Being kind to little old ladies crossing the street and, like, rescuing kittens from trees?"

"Bro, it's fucking snowing out there, no one has kittens stuck in trees and they're all, like, driving to wherever."

"Magic lamp?"

"You watch too many Disney movies."

"It's not my fault, the kids like them!"

"Anyway, Emperor's New Groove is better than Aladdin."

"'Why do we even have this lever?'" Luc and Josh both chorused, and grinned at each other while Fligs sighed dramatically and made disapproving dad noises at them.

"You know, it's creepy when you guys do that."

"Shut up."

"Yeah, Fligs, just cos you're not young and cool like us."

"Andy, you're not cool. Luc might be cool but I dunno, I think you're dragging him down."

"Someone is off the free babysitting list."

"Oh please, like you could say no to Janelle."

"…shut up."

* * *

+1. 

"You're missing the most obvious one, man," Bjorky said, and Josh remembered belatedly that his dad had played for like fifteen years over in Denmark, and also maybe Europeans had a line on the good curse-breaking shit that Canada hadn’t gotten around to yet, and maybe Josh should've asked him for advice earlier.

"Go get fucking laid!"

"Excuse me?" Josh said, mostly because it was marginally more polite than saying ‘what the fuck?’

"You're gripping your stick too tight!" Bjorky said, which was not actually helpful and Josh was going to roll his eyes right on out of his skull if one more person said that to him. Like, he knows, okay? "So go grip someone else's and, like, get it out of your system."

Josh dropped his stick.

"What?" he hissed, and Bjorky gave him a look that was 100% asshole, and smug about it, and Josh was a good person, he didn't deserve to be having this conversation in the middle of Nationwide with his coaches, like, fifty feet away.

"What, are we pretending like we don't both know you like him? Just go, I dunno, bone down with your bro, bust out of this slump and then no one has to listen to you whining."

"Who?" Josh said, but his eyes went guiltily right to Luc, and Bjorky just said, "Exactly," and jabbed him in the middle of the chest before patting his helmet patronizingly. "Go get your boy, Andy."

Josh needed better friends. Or at least, ones who would give him legitimate advice instead of just fucking with him.

"Your glove smells like ass," Josh said to him, and skated off to try and find someone who was less likely to fucking call him on all of his bullshit, but not fast enough to not hear Bjorky say something very rude about asses that Josh was going to pretend not to have heard for his own peace of mind.

"Olly sucks," he said, stopping beside Luc after a furtive glance over to check that no one was actually trying to get them to all do a drill or whatever yet.

"Sure," Luc agreed amiably. "What'd he do this time?"

"Uh," Josh said, since he couldn't exactly _tell Luc_. "He just has bad ideas."

Luc's eyes narrowed, and maybe Josh had been speaking too soon on that whole 'not calling him on his bullshit' thing. "About?"

"Stuff," Josh said. "Oh, hey, Booner's waving, I gotta… go…"

Boone of course had been doing nothing of the sort and mostly just looked confused when Josh broke into the middle of his conversation with Ryan and—Seth.

"Oh, is this a bad time?" Josh asked brightly, and thought, _nailed it_ when Ryan's ears went red and Seth looked even more poker-faced than he did whenever Maetz or whoever asked him questions he didn't want to answer on TV.

"Shut up, Andy," Boone said, and wow, Josh was really three for three on guilty consciences there.

"Please just never give me details, that's all I ask," Josh said, prompting a three-person silent conversation and wow, actually, the sexual tension was just radiating off all of them and it was actually super uncomfortable. 

Josh needed a better ‘get out of awkward conversations’ plan, because he'd just ricocheted himself from one into a worse one, by the looks of it.

"Go _away_ , Josh," Ryan said eventually, and then Torts yelled that they were ready to get started anyway, and that was the end of that.

* * *

Three wins, one overtime, several drinks and eleven fucking shots that all got swallowed up by a succession of infernally lucky goalies later, Josh was considering revisiting his previous plans. Maybe if he did all of them in order they might work? How long could a person even be cursed for?

"I mean the Cubs—" Harry started to say and Josh cleared his throat and said, pointedly, "Person!"

"Please just go, I don't know, pick someone up and get laid," Cam interrupted. "Like, for the love of god, Andy."

"Why, do _you_ think that'll work?" Josh perked up. Cam had been around the league for, like ten years or something, he definitely knew what was what. And unlike Bjorky, wasn’t riding at least a forty percent chance of just fucking with him for the sake of it. 

Cam snorted. "No, it might just make you stop being so fucking uptight about everything."

"Oh," Josh said, and slumped back onto his chair. 

Cam twitched, and Josh was not even close to drunk enough to not have seen the elbow Savy had just thrown into his midsection. Honestly, it was like they all thought he was blind or something.

"I mean, uh, yeah, that'll totally… break the… curse," he said, and Cam was not going to be winning any awards for acting any time soon because fuck was he unconvincing.

"Don't quit your day job," Josh advised, and tipped his head back to drain the last of his beer. 

He didn't really feel like trying to wheel some random girl or something, but a burst of noise from the other table the Jackets had colonized when they arrived at the bar grabbed his attention, Luc's sharp bark of laughter rising above the rest of them.

"You know, I'm just gonna—" Josh said, and shoved his bar stool back, heading to the other table via the bar.

Behind him, he could just see Savy leaning in to whisper-yell something into Cam's ear, but it probably—Josh told himself firmly—didn't have anything to do with him.

"Hey boys," Josh said as he got back to the other table, depositing another pitcher of beer in the middle of their glasses and trying not to set it down on top of anyone's phone or hands. God, they were all terrible at keeping track of their shit on the road; Josh wouldn't be surprised if they hit the plane the next morning down at least one person's phone.

"Andy!" Luc said cheerfully, and slid over to make room for him.

Well, that was what he tried to do. Sonny wasn't moving, and neither was Murr, so the space that remained was not exactly Josh-sized.

Josh mentally shrugged and sat down anyway.

His ass was half hanging off the bench seat, which wasn't comfortable, but Luc just murmured, "Hey, just—" and yanked him closer, letting his arm settle companionably over Josh's shoulder and now Josh was kind of half sitting on Luc's thigh and it was—

Well, it wasn't exactly the end of the world.

It was actually pretty good.

Josh picked up his beer and drank cheerfully. Things were looking up.

* * *

"So we're gonna just… go," Boone said, gesturing over his shoulder with one thumb, making a vague gesture that didn't really say anything but Josh was pretty sure they were all successfully reading as an indication that by 'we' he mean Murr and Jonesy, and that the rest of them were not invited.

"Bye," Josh said cheerfully, and because he couldn't quite resist the urge, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Ryan snorted, and then looked vaguely ashamed of himself, and Josh wasn't totally sober but he also was smart enough to know when someone was making fun of him, and Murr absolutely was.

"Murr?" Josh narrowed his eyes.

Ryan looked—almost sympathetic, or maybe pitying, and wow, this was trashing Josh's good mood fast.

"I just—you don't, Andy," he said, and Jonesy gave him a look that was definitely apologetic, and curled his hand around Ryan's wrist, tugging at him to get him moving.

"We'll talk later," Seth promised, looking back over his shoulder, but then his head turned right back around like it was magnetised to Boone waiting impatiently in the doorway, bouncing on the balls of his feet with restrained energy.

"Fuck, everyone is getting laid but me," Josh complained, deciding to leave figuring out all of that in the 'too hard' basket until he sobered up. He let himself slump forward, face-down on the tabletop, and sighed heavily.

The table didn't have any sympathy to offer him, and it was also sticky with some mysterious substance that Josh really hoped was just beer, and so when he finally tried to sit up straight again it meant that first he had to peel himself off the table and then scrub at his forehead with a napkin.

He was definitely not winning any charisma contests any time soon.

"They all suck," he said to the person opposite him, who turned out to be Bjorky.

Oliver snorted and threw back the rest of his beer. "Yeah, you're probably right there, Andy," he said, and Josh squinted, and then got it, and sighed heavily again.

"Like I said," and then he turned a little too vigorously to see what Luc had to say about all of this. They’d spread out a little when Elvis and Vladi had called it a night and headed back early, and while Josh had to admit it was technically more comfortable to be sitting normally, he’d kind of missed the excuse to stay plastered against Luc. 

In Josh’s experience, Luc was rarely lost for words, and got chirped like crazy as a result on and off the ice, but he'd been oddly quiet all night so far, and that kind of dug under Josh's skin and made him worry, made him wary.

"We should probably head back soon too," Luc said after a minute, looking at Josh and frowning like he was messing something up.

Josh was _definitely_ missing something here.

He shoved his shirt-sleeves back over his wrist and checked his watch. They had more than enough time before curfew to stay out a little later. Not that he'd be opposed to an earlier night, or to going back to the hotel and watching some TV or something if the boys wanted to.

"Everyone psyched for tonight's marathon of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?" he asked, as the few of them left there started shoving things back into their pockets and getting up, getting ready to head out.

"I think I'll pass," Bjorky said, and the rest of the kids murmured similar sentiments, until it was just Luc shrugging and saying, "Sure thing, I could watch."

"You know it's just gonna be the same like five episodes we saw last week, right?" Harry said. "And it's not even the one where he's in Columbus, or at that good place in LA." There's like five good places in LA that the Jackets have found themselves at just since Josh's been up with the big club, but he doesn't bother arguing; Harry's probably right. They rerun stuff a lot on the cooking network, but that's kind of why he likes it. "And—" he started to add, and then closed his mouth so fast his teeth clicked together, and normally Josh would've been right on the ball with making fun of him for that, but instead he was distracted wondering why Luc had just elbowed Harry in the ribs.

Luc didn't have any trouble at all chirping the rest of the guys, he'd even try to dish it out to Fligs despite the fact they all knew he was gonna end up paying for it twice as much later, so it couldn't have been that, and Josh was still chewing over the possibilities there as they finished packing up and settled their tab, milling around the bar while they waited for the bartender to close it out.

He didn't realize he'd been quieter than usual as a result until Savy's elbow dug into his ribs and Josh looked up guiltily, the word "What?" coming out just a little more hostilely than he might have preferred.

"Don't mess with him," Savy warned, and it was a warning, albeit one delivered with wry warmth and Josh blinked because he had no fucking idea what was going on.

Unless—

Josh's eyes went back to Luc like they were glued to him, and he watched long enough to see Luc stealing little glances back at him as they walked, and it didn't necessarily mean anything much at all, but it still set little flickers of flame curling through Josh's stomach, made him feel hot and bothered and impatiently hovering on the very tip of something altogether more ground-shaking.

All of them jammed into the elevator in the lobby, one of the older ones that was on the smaller side and as per usual Josh kind of held his breath until they were all out again. Some superstitions felt a lot dumber than others, but he couldn't quite get himself to quit now. Not when he'd come so far already.

He paused with his hand on the door handle to his room and looked over his shoulder, Luc caught mid-step behind him.

"You coming?" he asked, trying to leave himself some room to not feel like a complete jackass if Luc said no, if Luc decided he had better things to be doing. 

Josh didn't need the company, it'd just be, well. Nice. The road felt kind of lonely sometimes, not that he'd ever have expected to feel that way back when he was on his entry-level still and itching at everything constraining him. He'd heard some guys had kept sharing even after they were allowed to ditch road roommates, and times like this he kind of got where they were coming from.

"Yeah," Luc said decisively, and he was right on Josh's heels as the door clicked open.

* * *

"Do you want—" Josh started to say, making a move towards the TV or at least to the remote on the night stand, but Luc was suddenly right there in his face instead of sprawling out and making himself at home on Josh's bed.

"Yes," Luc said, with a storm in his eyes and his jaw set, and Josh thought, "What does he—?" and "What'd I do?" in very quick, confused succession, and then he couldn't think at all because Luc was stepping right up to him, their chests bumping together, and it was not at all bros.

Not even a little bit.

"Oh fuck," Josh exhaled, and Luc squared his shoulders and got his hands on Josh's face and kissed him _hard_.

Josh tried to say, "wait what?" because he was a dumbass who didn't know a good thing when it was putting moves on him, apparently, but he mumbled his way through exactly one syllable before Luc bit his lower lip—hard, and if Josh's brain ever kicked back online he was going to ask Luc if he'd been taking pointers from fucking Dracula or something.

"Jeez," Josh said, a little more audibly as Luc stopped pressing and backed off just a fraction.

"Look," Luc said, stubborn and mildly annoyed and fuck, both of those things were so hot on him, Josh was absolutely boned. "Did you wanna talk or do you want to make out?"

"I mean," Josh said, because that wasn't even close to a competition, "Make out, obviously, but I want to—if it's on the table, I kinda want you to fuck me."

He chewed on his own lip for a second, stomach churning over how much he'd just put himself out there in return, over how he could feel where his mouth was sensitive and tender just from how Luc had handled him so far. He couldn't deny that was exactly what he was after, though.

"Straight up, I respect that," Luc said. "I just wish you'd said _sooner_."

Josh blinked at him. "I could not possibly have said that any quicker after you made a move on me. Like, I offered to give it up on the first date, man, come on."

Luc gave him a betrayed look, rolled his eyes up towards the ceiling and then buried his head into Josh's shoulder, eyelashes brushing feather-winged over his collar, breathing hot and damp against his skin, and Josh couldn't see to tell but he was pretty sure Luc was doing that whole silent scream thing. 

It was so uncalled for, Josh was totally killing it with this hook up thing, wasn't he?

Luc got himself under control after a moment and straightened up again, looking right at Josh. Josh felt butterflies start firing up their engines in his belly. There was something in Luc's expression that just—

"We have been flirting," Luc said, "and you _never_ made a move, you always joke and then no follow through, nothing that says you mean it. And I couldn't tell! You never _said_ , Josh."

Josh's stomach churned. He couldn't—he didn't know how to deal with this. "I wasn't sure you wanted me to!" he said, and he hadn't been. "I didn't want, you know. To make things weird."

"Here's a hint," Luc said, stepping closer again, "if a guy stares at your ass a lot and talks about how hot you are, he probably wants to take passes with you off the ice as well."

"I didn't think you noticed me staring at your ass," Josh said, sheepish. At least it's clear Luc doesn't mind.

Luc punched him in the biceps, pretty hard. "I was staring at yours!"

"Oh," Josh said. "I didn't notice?"

"No shit," Luc said, and then he yanked at Josh's shirt. "Please get naked and distract me from how annoying it is when you play dumb."

"I don't play—" Josh tried to protest, and then thought better of it; he could keep arguing and dig himself into a deeper hole, or he could get undressed and fuck around with Luc and there was just no contest there at all. "Fine, whatever, I'm a dumbass, take your shirt off."

"You know, I feel like we're setting a bad precedent here," Luc said, but he took his shirt off, and then he started on Josh's pants as well, and Josh was definitely a fan of his initiative.

Josh also let Luc press him back until it was easier to get on the bed than just lean against it, and then Luc hooked a leg around his and rolled them, till he was flat on his back with Josh covering him, pressing him into the mattress, and making it very clear that Luc was just as into all of this as he was.

Luc's hands were wandering freely by that point and Josh definitely didn't have any complaints about that either, other than the fact that Luc was still wearing _his_ pants—unbuttoned at least—and Josh was basically naked.

"Catch up," he mumbled, trying to tug Luc's pants down, but it was hard to manage the way they were lying, and reaching up to kiss Luc instead seemed a whole lot more appealing than doing anything else.

"I'm good," Luc said, running his hand down Josh's back, fingertips bumping over the knobs of his spine, curving around his ass and squeezing, digging in. Josh bit back a whimper and tried not to rub off on Luc too obviously. He had some reputation to maintain, thanks.

"Real good," Josh agreed, and bit the inside of his cheek with a gasp when Luc managed to get a hand between them and stroke over his dick, quick and tight and ruinously good. "Too good, fuck."

"Too much?" Luc asked, and Josh was going to scream if he stopped, but probably also if he didn't. He did have to get something across first, though, embarrassing as it was.

"Uh, no, it's good, just, uh. This might be over pretty quick," he admitted. "It's been a while, you know?"

"Fine with me," Luc said, and he kissed Josh quick again, hands soft and light on his hips, and then Luc was pulling away, which Josh was not expecting and definitely not a fan of. "Wait, are you just hooking up with me because you think you're cursed?"

"No!" Josh protested, and he meant it, hoped Luc could hear that in his words. "Like, it doesn't _hurt_ , but—I've been looking at you since before that, you know?"

"Not as comforting as you think that sounded," Luc informed him, but he did also put his hands back on Josh's dick and a win was a win, in Josh's eyes.

It was hard to focus on anything but Luc's hands, then; big and sure and strong. Luc let go of Josh precisely long enough that they could shift around and get on their sides, making it easier to touch, to press against each other, to feel everything.

Josh managed to keep just enough control of himself not to lose it for what he hoped was a respectable amount of time—it was hard to keep track when Luc was making him feel so good—and then it was abruptly too much, and he managed to choke out just enough of a warning.

"Fuck, that's hot," Luc said softly, and Josh wasn't sure he was meant to hear it but it felt just as good as Luc's hands did.

Josh rolled onto his back and stared blindly up at the ceiling for a minute, trying to catch his breath. This really was not how he'd pictured his night ending. And—fuck, Luc was still right there, waiting on him, and Josh hadn't even really got to touch him yet.

"Fuck me, you're still wearing pants," he said, scrambling to remedy that situation.

"I'm trying," Luc joked, but the expression fell away into something a lot more serious as Josh managed to get his dick out, touched him carefully, learning the shape and weight of him.

Luc hissed, and his hips pressed forward, and Josh could feel how hard he was, dragged his finger along his dick and then down to palm his balls as well, the zipper of his pants digging into the side of Josh's wrist. And fuck, he didn't mind that at all, not if it also made Luc clutch him desperately, and hiss out words that Josh thought were probably French but were definitely turned on. And okay, Josh had just gotten off, but he wanted more, wanted Luc in him, wanted to feel him all over.

"Andy," Luc hissed, after a few seconds of that, "I'm gonna come, you gotta—fuck, just wait a second."

"All I've been doing is waiting," Josh complained, but he did let go of Luc long enough for him to wriggle back to his feet and shove the rest of his clothing off, while Josh leaned over the end of the bed and dug through his bag.

"You sure about all of this?" Luc asked, uncharacteristically hesitant. Josh wasn't used to seeing him not just jump in head first, and it made him think that this really was more serious, something more than boredom and frustration and a willing body.

"Yeah," Josh said, "come on already," and he stretched out on the bed, legs spread, and reached for Luc.

One thing you could say for Luc: when he made up his mind, he went for it, no holds barred.

Luc was heavy on him, hands running up Josh's sides, touching him all over, moving him around like he weighed nothing, till he was exactly laid out how Luc wanted him. And that was making Josh's breath come fast and short, his heart thumping double time as Luc pushed at his arms until Josh put them above his head, fingertips brushing the rough fabric of the headboard.

"Nice," Luc said approvingly, his thumb digging into the soft skin at his wrist as he got one big hand wrapped around Josh's, letting his weight press him down into the mattress, and it was so exactly what Josh wanted that he couldn't bite back the growl of appreciation.

"PL, come on," Josh said, squirming under him, arching up to try and rub off on him. It didn't seem to matter that he'd already come; he was getting hard again, and Luc made an appreciative sound as he leaned in, letting his free hand slide down Josh's chest, palm spread over his abs, teasing.

"Yeah, okay," Luc said after another moment or two, and his hand went between Josh's legs, his thumb pushing inside, tugging at his rim, a whole other kind of tease that made Josh buck wildly under him and whine.

"I don't," Josh started to say, and then when Luc stopped moving he made a frustrated noise and started over. "You don't need to baby me, just—fuck me."

"Well, if you say so," Luc said, too obviously turned on to even get in the same zipcode as sounding smug about it, and he grabbed the condoms and lube Josh had dumped near his hip, yanking the packet open and sliding the condom on with a bitten-off growl before he got his hands on Josh's thighs and just fucking manhandled him into position.

Josh's breath caught, arousal spiking; this was exactly, exactly what he wanted, what he needed, and he was going to scream if Luc made him wait any longer.

Luc didn't; Luc shoved forward in one easy motion, sinking into Josh, and it felt so good, the heat and pressure and shape of him, fitting into Josh in all the right ways. Josh let his hips move, ground back against Luc, clutching at him, his fingers digging into Luc's skin, probably leaving bruises with how hard he was grabbing at him.

If he'd been worried that Luc would mind, he needn't have been. Luc grinned at him, fierce with joy, his palms smoothing over Josh's skin, appreciative and warm, and said, "Hell yeah I will."

Josh snorted out a laugh, one that turned into a gasp as Luc moved inside him in a way that was really fucking good for Josh, and Luc just looked even smugger, gloriously pleased with himself and with Josh, as Josh moaned shamelessly underneath him and fell apart.

"Fuck, exactly like that," Josh managed to grit out, as Luc kept fucking him, only then starting to falter as he hit his own limits, clutching Josh tight and murmuring something French into the side of Josh's neck where his face was buried, breath hot and fast on Josh's skin.

They separated just enough that Josh didn't think he was about to overheat and die—Luc ran _hot_ —and lay there barely touching, catching their breath.

"You should stay," Josh said eventually, not letting himself examine the thought too closely. It was—it was Luc, that was the important thing. And they both knew Tex would cover for him if he had to.

"I can't wait to be off my entry level," Luc said, only sounding mildly envious and Josh laughed and didn't second-guess himself at all before replying, "And how many shoes will you be buying then?"

"Oh fuck you," Luc said, giving Josh a half-hearted shove, and Josh laughed again and said, "I mean…" significantly, and that set Luc off too, the two of them laughing themselves breathless. It was so dumb and it felt so exactly right, too; that they'd gotten themselves to this point, tangled up in bed together laughing at the stupidest piece of innuendo.

"We're doing this again, right?" Josh said after, running his fingertips up Luc's side and making him shudder, finding out exactly where he was secretly ticklish. And only a little bit planning to use that ill-gotten information against him the next time they wound up fighting over the remote or whatever.

"Yeah," Luc said, without hesitation. "I mean, it's apparently the only way I can guarantee you're gonna score regularly, so…"

"Oh, fuck _you_ ," Josh said, able to laugh about that for the first time all season, it felt like, and Luc just rolled onto his side, pressed an open-mouthed kiss to his shoulder and said, "Well, I mean, we can definitely do that next time."

-the end-


End file.
